Author Archives: Elizabeth Richardson

Some Women of Means

Posted on by

Fourth Sunday after Pentecost (6C), June 12, 2016; The Rev. Pamela L. Werntz

1 Kings 21:1-21a Jezebel.
Galatians 2:15-21 I do not nullify the grace of God.
Luke 7:36-8:3 The twelve were with him as well as some women…who provided for them out of their resources.

O God of Love, grant us the strength, the wisdom and the courage to seek always and everywhere after truth, come when it may, and cost what it will.

In today’s Gospel reading, we hear the famous story of an unnamed city woman who lived a life of flagrant disobedience to the law (aka a criminal). In order to undercut the authority of religious leaders in Luke’s own time at the end of the first century, Luke misrepresents and caricatures a Pharisee named Simon in a way that is historically mistaken and theologically inappropriate. Pharisees were quite clear in their teachings about the abundant mercy and compassion of God, and their teachings that faithful people were to emulate God in offering mercy and compassion. Of course there may have been a gap between teachings and behavior. We’ve seen that in our own religious practices, haven’t we? Ironically, Luke, and those who have repeated the slander of Pharisees, put themselves in the position of needing great forgiveness. [1] Continue reading →

Digging Deep

Posted on by

Second Sunday after Pentecost, (4C), May 29, 2016; The Rev. Pamela L. Werntz

1 Kings 18:20-21(22-29)30-39. No voice, no answer, and no response [from Baal].
Galatians 1:1-12.  Not that there is another Gospel.
Luke 7:1-10.  Lord…I am not worthy to have you come under my roof.

O God of Love, grant us the strength, the wisdom and the courage to seek always and everywhere after truth, come when it may, and cost what it will.

As I promised you last week, we have returned to the Gospel of Luke, the great story-teller. Today we hear that Jesus has finished all of his sayings in the hearing of the people. What were all of his sayings? Well, the beatitudes, descriptions of both blessings and curses, and Jesus’ instructions on how to live fully into the realm of God: love your enemies; give to everyone who begs from you; do not judge; forgive one another; don’t be hypocrites; don’t be like trees that bear bad fruit. Be like trees that bear good fruit. Those are familiar teachings, often read in church. But then comes a passage that is so rarely read that I don’t remember ever hearing it, and when I looked at the verses leading up to the story of the centurion’s slave, I skipped right over it. Fortunately for me (and maybe for you), my wife Joy was also writing a sermon this week to preach at her parents’ church in Independence, Missouri this morning. Joy is a trained notice. She noticed what Jesus says just before our Gospel portion for today picks up. Continue reading →

Author, Word & Inspiration

Posted on by

Trinity Sunday, (C), May 22, 2016; The Rev. Pamela L. Werntz

Proverbs 8:1-4,22-31 Does not wisdom call, and does not understanding raise her voice? …’To you, O people, I call, and my cry is to all that live.’
Romans 5:1-11 We boast in our hope of sharing the glory of God…because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.
John 16:12-15 I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now.

O indescribable Holy One, grant us the strength, the wisdom and the courage to seek always and everywhere after truth, come when it may, and cost what it will.

For those of you who struggle with the Gospel of John, this Gospel reading is for you. It begins with an acknowledgement that, while there is much more to say, Jesus knows that you cannot bear it now. Perhaps this is recognition of saturation, of exhaustion, of grief, of the lack of additional capacity among Jesus’ followers. It seems like it might be compassionate, parental. Or, perhaps the scribe was just tired or short on papyrus and so he wrote that into the Gospel story. Either way, I like to imagine that it is a statement that is true in every age that there are more things than we can hear or bear. I find it to be a very hopeful idea that there is more wisdom and truth than are recorded in the scriptures. Wisdom and truth were not completely revealed in Jesus’ time – they are not completely revealed even yet. The revelation of the Divine is ongoing, continuing. Continue reading →

A Breath of Fresh Air (with audio)

Posted on by

Pentecost (C), May 15, 2016; The Rev. Pamela L. Werntz

Acts 2:1-21 Like the rush of a violent wind.
Romans 8:14-17 For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear.
John 14:8-17, 25-27 Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not let them be afraid.

O God of our burning hearts, grant us the strength, the wisdom and the courage to seek always and everywhere after truth, come when it may, and cost what it will.

Some of you, who follow along in the bulletin when the Gospel is being read, might be wondering why there are no capital letters or punctuation marks in our printed copy this morning. It’s because the capitalization and punctuation is so objectionable to me that I just didn’t want to print it the way it appears in our English translation. Many of you have heard me preach about punctuation being a medieval invention, developed centuries after the Gospels were written. When our scripture was written, it was written without spaces between words, without punctuation, without indication for titles or other proper nouns. So punctuation, while very useful, is a layer of interpretation, just like translation is interpretation. In this version, the doctrinal freight of the interpretation weighs me down. For example, in our Gospel reading today, the number of times that the word father appears with a capital F (when Jesus’ mother never gets a single capital M) was just too heavy for me this past week! There are other heavy stumbling blocks, such as where to attach adverbial clauses, whether ‘and’ or ‘but’ is a better conjunction, and so forth. So in a fit of pique, I asked our parish administrator, Amanda March, to take an ee cummings approach to the text. I have to say, I like the look. It takes some of the interpretive heaviness away. Let’s not be the weights around God’s ankles, especially on this day when we celebrate the gift of Spirit! Continue reading →

Processing Emotional Discomfort

Posted on by

As I come into the end of my internship with Emmanuel Church, I am reflecting on what I can take away from this experience.  What am I taking with me from this internship beyond the indelible impact of resilient, artistic, and caring individuals?  Undoubtedly, the ways I have been impacted by others and the wonderful memories I have made with people in this internship will be something I carry with me for the rest of my life. In addition, I have been reflecting on what growth and new skills this internship has given me.  I believe that one of the most important skills I have gained from this internship – something that I can take with me into future career opportunities and life in general – is the ability to sit with my own discomfort.  This is not to suggest that I should sit idle if I feel like my personal safety or the safety of others is at risk, but I am suggesting that it is okay and maybe even essential to therapeutic presence to be able to sit with and process the emotional discomfort that can arise in difficult situations.     Continue reading →

It’s a gift.

Posted on by

Seventh Sunday in Easter, Year C, May 8, 2016; The Rev. Pamela L. Werntz

Acts 16:16-34 About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God.
Revelation 22:12-14, 16-17, 20-21 And let everyone who is thirsty come. Let anyone who wishes take the water of life as a gift.
John 17:20-26 That they may all be one…so that the world may believe that you have sent me.

O God of freedom, grant us the strength, the wisdom and the courage to seek always and everywhere after truth, come when it may, and cost what it will. Amen.

This past week, while I was attending a conference, our Tuesday morning Bible Study, went ahead as scheduled. My wife Joy facilitated the group and took some notes for me. At the bottom, in all caps, were the words, “SING THIS!” And so, because I am unusually obedient, I did. Continue reading →

Desire well-being!

Posted on by

Sixth Sunday in Easter, Year C, May 1, 2016; The Rev. Pamela L. Werntz

Acts 16:9-15 Come and stay at my home.
Revelation 21:10, 22-22:5 I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God.
John 5:1-9 Stand up, take your mat and walk.

O God of our vision of healing, grant us the strength, the wisdom and the courage to seek always and everywhere after truth, come when it may, and cost what it will.

Good job getting here this morning! The first Sunday of May is always the day for Project Bread’s Walk for Hunger – and of course, what that means is Walk for Hunger relief. Project Bread’s mission is to end hunger in Massachusetts. The organizers expect that more than 40,000 people are walking or running (or trudging or limping) to raise awareness and raise money to develop and provide better food security in Massachusetts. That seems like an awful lot of people – especially if you were trying to get here from north of the Charles River, and it is a lot of people. They will raise a lot of money. The scandalous truth is, though, that it will not be nearly enough because one out of every ten households in Massachusetts struggles with too little to eat. Of course, that 10% is not evenly distributed. In some communities, as many as 7 in 10 households experience hunger. Twenty percent of all households with children in Massachusetts have insufficient food to eat. As we approach the end of the school year, the access to meals for children gets much more precarious because breakfast and lunch are not being provided at school. Part of what we are doing when we participate in B-SAFE (our diocese’s day camp academic enrichment program) is providing breakfast and lunch to hungry kids. Although it is a large program, B-SAFE reaches only about 525 children and about 100 teens. Twenty percent of all households with children in Massachusetts have insufficient food to eat.
Continue reading →

Opening up

Posted on by

Fifth Sunday of Easter, Year C, April 24, 2016; The Rev. Pamela L. Werntz

Acts 11:1-18 Who was I that I could hinder God?
Revelation 21:1-6 See, I am making all things new.
John 13:31-35 I give you a new commandment, [in order that] that you love one another.

O God of love, grant us the wisdom, the strength and the courage to seek always and everywhere after truth, come when it may, and cost what it will.

Now we’re five weeks into Eastertide, and our lectionary takes us back to the Gospel of John’s story of the night that Jesus was arrested. It’s like the Church is saying, “okay, it’s been a few weeks since Holy Week. Let’s review.” The scene of this last supper, according to John, is not a Passover meal, but a meal the day before the festival of Passover, the Feast of Freedom, was about to start. During supper, Jesus has washed the feet of his followers and commanded them to wash one another’s feet. Then, while Jesus and his followers were reclining Jesus revealed that Judas would betray him, by giving Judas a piece of bread. The story goes that “after Judas received the piece of bread, Satan entered into him,” and “Jesus said to him, ‘Do quickly what you are going to do.’” You might remember that Satan means Adversary – the constant accuser of God (Who is Love) and of humans (who are made by and for Love). Immediately after that Judas went out into the night, and then Jesus said the words we just heard Susanne read. Just after our passage, Jesus told Peter that Peter would deny even knowing him three times before the rooster signaled the rising sun. Continue reading →

Bulldozers Needed (with audio)

Posted on by

Fourth Sunday of Easter, Year C, April 17, 2016; The Rev. Pamela L. Werntz

Acts 9:36-43 He gave her his hand and helped her up.
Revelation 7:9-17 He will guide them to springs of the water of life.
John 10:22-30 It was winter.

O God of eternal life, grant us the strength, the wisdom and the courage to seek always and everywhere after truth, come when it may, and cost what it will.

We are in the weeds now on our way through the Great Fifty Days of Easter. When we have three readings like these, I think of what our resident Rabbi Howard Berman usually asks me when he preaches to us: “why do I always get the hard lessons?” My response to him is that the lessons are always hard. They are either hard to believe, or easy to believe and hard to stomach. Encountering Biblical texts, for me, is something like an archaeological dig: it’s difficult to get through layers upon layers of heavy hard stuff piled on top of a mysterious and beautiful mosaic floor that has tiles missing when you finally get down to it; or like mining for valuable gems that you may or may not find! We are digging for evidence and mining for meaning when we search for beauty under the rubble in our sacred literature, and the question to ask about any scriptural artifact is not, “how and where is this still happening?” Continue reading →